Gratitude

So I read on Andy's blog this quote by Henri Nouwen as quoted in Brennan Manning's Ruthless Trust.

To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives--the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections--that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for. Let's not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.

I read it on Monday when he posted it and I've been mulling it over in my mind ever since. I'm sure I'm not there yet (will I ever get there?), but it's something to strive for.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Christmas

We got out some decorations tonight. I left these on the floor since I wasn't going to put them on the tree. I thought Anne might like to look at them for a minute or two. She loved them! She played with them for almost 30 minutes! She would put them around her neck, take them off, bang them all together on the floor, over and over again. It was so cute!

Christmas pictures

Steph is going to take Christmas pictures of Anne tomorrow morning. I'm very excited. I'll post the best ones as soon as I have them.

7 1/2 hours!

That's how much sleep I got last night. Not broken up by nursing 3 times , either. :) Actually 7 1/2 hours all at one time! yay! I first put her down at 7:30, but she woke up at 9:45. But then she slept from 10 - 6 without waking up! (I slept from 10:30 - 6.) That's the most I've slept at one time since Anne was born, 378 nights ago. Maybe - hopefully - it's the beginning of a trend.

Some 1 year pictures

I took these Tuesday, the day after she turned one year. There are more pictures on my photo album here.

*%^#! Daylight Savings Time

Let me go on the record for being heartily opposed to daylight savings time. Before Anne, I thought it was a mere nuisance. I was wrong, it is so bad, I can't come up with a strong enough word. For the past while, she's been fairly routine - get up about 7, eat, play, snack, play, eat, nap in the afternoon, snack, play, go to bed about 7:30. I don't need a serious routine, but a little goal is good. And I like that I get to sleep till 7 and she goes to bed fairly early. Okay, enter daylight savings time. Sunday she was awake at 4:45. Took a nap at 9 a.m. Did NOT take an afternoon nap. Wanted to go to be at 5. Monday I got her to sleep till 6. Took a morning nap. Wanted to take an afternoon nap at 4 (!) and when I wouldn't let her sleep very long, she cried almost the whole time till she went to bed at 7. And today - up at 5:15. (in full disclosure, Anne has a cold, too, but I blame most of this on the time change.)

Screw daylight savings time. The creators obviously were not parents.

Happy 1st Birthday, Anne!

Happy birthday!

Happy Birthday!

She was having fun opening presents, but either is getting a cold or has allergies. She looks a little dazed, eh?

Visit from family

Gramma and Grampa came to visit this weekend.

Halloween!

We didn't go trick-or-treating, but she still looked pretty cute. :)

Fall! Yay!

Out walking with Daddy